Freight vehicle closure



March 3, 1970 w. E. BRUNING 3,498,358

FREIGHT VEHICLE CLOSURE Filed March 12, 1969 FIGI l N VENTOR:

WILUAM E, BRUNING United States Patent O 3,498,358 FREIGHT VEHICLE CLOSURE William E. Bruning, Omaha, Nebr., assignor of one-half to International Paper Company, New York, N.Y., a corporation of New York, and one-half to The Stanley Works, New Britain, Conn., a corporation of 'Connecticllt Filed Mar. 12, 1969, Ser. No. 806,496 Int. Cl. A4711 15/00, 3/00; E04c 5/16 U.S. Cl. 160-368 2 Claims ABSTRACT F THE DISCLOSURE BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY OF INVENTION In the transporation of grain by railroad boxcars, the doorways are equipped interiorily with temporary closures. These closures or barriers extend a substantial distance (but not all the way) to the top of the doorway and usually are made of kraft paper in which perforated steel straps are embedded. The straps (and hence the barrier) are nailed to the posts which define the vertical sides of the doorway. Thus, it is possible for grain to be introduced over the barrier into the car. Without such a barrier, it is clear that grain would leak out the doorway as fast as it is introduced. After the car reaches its destination, the sliding storm doors are opened and the temporary barrier destroyed to permit the grain to ilow out into a dump or pit. In many installations, a ram is used to push the temporary barricade inwardly and after a number of such operations, the normally provided wooden door posts become splintered. Once this occurs, the ability to secure subsequent nailed-on doors is materially weaked. Over the years, persons in this art have provided replacement door posts, two forms of which are seen in my prior Patents 3,052,292 and 3,218,766. The instant invention constitutes an improvement over the teachings of these prior patents.

According to this invention, a metal, nailable door post is provided which is made up of several interconnected, spaced apart elongated sections. The sections, by virtue of the spacing, provide nail-receiving slots. A nail is driven through each strap of the barricade into an aligned opening. Each of the new nailing posts is equipped with a unique retainer bar means adjacent a given slot and on the doorway side of the slot, providing a side bearing for the nail. I also provide for certain types of doors depressed portions under the retainer bar means for the receipt of the straps and in still other cases provide both the nailing post and the door itself with positioning indicia to facilitate the installation.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION vThe invention is explained in conjunction with the accompanying drawing, in which:

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary perspective View of the interior of a freight vehicle constructed and equipped according to the teachings of this invention;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged fragmentary perspective view of the portion encircled in FIG. l and designated by the numeral 2; and

FIG. 3 is an enlarged sectional view of a modied form of door post.

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In the illustrations given and with reference to FIG. I, the letter A designates generally a freight vehicle, only a portion of which is seen. Advantageously, the vehicle A may take the form of a boxcar having a floor 10, sidewalls 11 and a doorway 12 defined in part by vertical door posts 13. Partially closing the doorway 12 is a temporary door or barricade designated B.

The door B advantageously is constructed of outer liners of kraft paper which sandwich a corrugated core, the flutes of which run vertically. However, this core may be omitted. Positioned between the core and one of the liners (the liner facing the outside of the car) are a plurality of metal straps 14 as can be seen from the extreme left-hand portion of FIG. 1. The door B is equipped with a side ap 15 which can be folded outwardly to expose the straps 14. In so doing, a portion of the corrugated core 16 is seen. The numeral 17 and 18 designate the previously referred to outer liners.

Each strap 14 is perforated at spaced points along its length as at 19 for the receipt of securing nails. After the nails have been installed, the flap 15 is returned to generally coplanar relationship with the rest of the door panel B (as seen at the right-hand side of FIG. l) and a securing batten 20` may be installed to further anchor the door B.

The practice of this art also has been to provide a top climb board 21 and a bottom pry board 22. The climb board is employed during sampling of the grain. Ordinarily the boxcar will be shipped through a grain center such as Chicago and the contents of the car sampled for the purpose of marketing the same. In the sampling, the sliding storm doors (not show'n) are opened and since these doors are subjected to considerable stress, it is often necessary to use a pry bar. The pry bar is literally thrust into the pry board 22 to inch open the doors. Thereafter, a sampling artisan climbs into the car and the climb board 21 is provided to support his weight. Also conventional in the art is the provision of a bottom floor flap 23 so as to avoid the possibility of leakage of grain underneath the door.

Turning now to FIG. 2, the left-hand door post 13 is seen in enlarged fragmentary broken away form. Projecting generally laterally and horizontally from the door B is a strap 14 equipped with the already referred-to nail openings 19. The nailing post 13 is seen to be made up of a J-section 24 and a channel section 25. The sections are maintained in generally vertical position and spaced apart by means of spacers as at 26 mounted on a through bolt 27 maintained in place by end nuts 28. Thus a substantially unitary rigid member is provided lwhich has vertically-extending slot 29 therein. Alternatively, welding may be employed.

The channel section 25, for example, has a central bight part 30 and a leg parts 31 and 32 integral therewith. The l section 24 has a top section 33 and a leg part 36. The leg parts 31 and 34 cooperate to deiine the slot 29. In FIG. 2, a nail 35 is seen in the process of being hammered into the slot'29.

The bight part 30 of the section 25 is seen to be relieved as at 36 and this provides an advantageous means y for mounting the strap 14. Portions 30a and 3017 of the bight part 30 adjacent the relieved or recessed portion 36 provide a mounting for a retainer bar 37 as by welding. It will be noted that the retainer bar 37 has a ilat or straight side edge as at 38 which is generally parallel to and aligned with the right-hand edge of the slot 29. Thus, as the nail end is driven home, the retainer bar 37 serves as a bolster or bearing to resist any tendency of the nail 3S to move sidewardly and thus become loosened from its position within the slot 29. It will be appreciated that the door B is under tremendous stress by virtue of the thousands of pounds of grain conned within the car and which surges as the car is started, stopped, humped, bumped, etc. Normally, there is a tremendous outward force on the door B and this tends to pull the straps 14 in toward the door and such stress tends to work and loosen the nails end.

Turning now to FIG. 3, a modied form of nailing post is seen and is designated 113. Again, the post 113 is adapted to anchor a strap by virtue of a nail end passing through an opening in the strap. The essential difference between the showings in FIGS. 2 and 3 resides in the character of the bight parts 30I and 130, respectively. In FIG. 3, the entire bight part 130 is depressed or relieved relative to the curved portion 133 of the J sections 224, respectively. Again, a retainer bar 137 is provided with its bearing-providing straight edge 138. The retainer bar 137 is also supported as by shims 139 so as to be level with the top part 133 of the J section 124. Again, the space between the underside of the retainer bar 137 and the upper or inwardly-facing surface of the bight part 130 provides an advantages space for the receipt of the straps 14.

In both the embodiments thus described, the placement of the retainer bar 37 or 137 with its holding edge in a direct line with the mailing slot 29 or 129 provides positive nailing and strap retention by the cooperation of the nailing groove holding capacity on the nail shank below, and the retainer bar preventing the nail from withdrawing in the load direction from above. The bottom head of the duplex nail rests on the top of the retainer bar when secured to permit easy removal after the boxcar is unloaded. As the pressure of the grain applies a loading or stress to the strap, the nail is pulled tightly against the retainer bar, allowing the strap to perform up to its full holding capacity.

According to my invention as indicated in the drawings, I have suggested two possible constructions of supporting the retainer bars on the bight parts. However, in both forms the bight parts are set at a slightly lower level than the J sections 24 or 124 thereby permitting the top or innermost surface of the retainer bar 37 or 137 to be in the same plane as the top or inner part of the top section 33 0r 137. This provides a'smooth surface in relation to the lining of the boxcar and eliminates any offset which might damage packaged lading when the boxcar is not used in grain service.

What is claimed is:

1. In combination with a freight vehicle having a doorway dened in part by vertical nailing posts along the doorway sides and extending upwardly from the vehicle oor, a temporary door extending across the doorway, said door having a plurality of vertically spaced, horizontally elongated straps extending the width of the door with nails extending through said straps into said post to secure said door in place, said posts each comprising an elongated rigid member equipped with a vertically extending nail-receiving slot, said member being relieved on the side of said slot adjacent said doorway, and retainer bar means rigidly secured to said member over the relieved portions thereof, said retainer bar means having a generally flat side edge parallel to and in juxtaposition with said slot and providing a side bearing for nails temporarily anchored in said slot.

2. The structure of claim 1 in which each of said members includes two elongated interconnected sections arranged in side-by-side spaced relation to provide said slot, each section having a top part and a leg part integral therewith, said top part of one section being relieved at longitudinally spaced areas to provide said relieved portions with the remaining portions of said one section top part being in supporting relation with one side of said retainer bar means, the other side of said bar means being in substantially the same plane as the top part of the other section.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,218,766H ll/ 1965 Bruning. 3,335,522 8/1967 Bruning. 3,394,753 7/1968 Magnuson et al.

DAVID I. WILLIAMOWSKY, Primary Examiner PHILIP C. KANNAN, Assistant Examiner U.S. Cl. X.R. 

